The mid-term senatorial election is fast approaching, and this November's general ballot will feature candidates from several parties vying for Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell's seat. On that list is former Leschi resident and Green Party candidate Aaron Dixon.
Now a Beacon Hill resident, the 57-year-old Dixon is a father of six, with a well-established history of community activism.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dixon was a crucial, organizing member of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP). During his time with the BPP he advocated for the civil liberties of black students at Rainier Beach High School, started the Free Breakfast for School Children program and helped open a free legal clinic and a community medical clinic, which is still operational as the Carolyn Downs Clinic, located on East Yesler Way.
Today, Dixon juggles the responsibilities of a statewide political campaign with his North Seattle nonprofit organization, Central House, which he founded in 2002 to provide transitional housing for homeless young adults as well as a base for a youth leadership project that currently operates in four Seattle high schools.
Why did you decide to run?
I was approached by the Green Party in December or early January. I had never had any inclination to run for political office. I always said if I was asked I'd always say no.
Did you have specific reasons for not wanting to run?
I don't like being in the public eye; I'm really a private person. I've never had too much faith in politicians. It was something I never really wanted to be.
Did that surprise you when they approached you?
Yeah, I was surprised, but I had been thinking, before they came to visit me, how important it is that we started working toward putting really progressive, or even revolutionary, people into political office....
I know a lot of people were really fed up with Republicans and Democrats alike, really fed up with the current group of politicians and past politicians that we've had. So I thought the timing was good for them to ask me because I was feeling that it was time this country started moving in that direction.
You called the Green Party's network a "shell." How do you feel about the infrastructure now that you've been campaigning for several months?
They told me, when they talked to me, that their statewide apparatus was not that well intact, but we have a lot of volunteers that have signed up to be on my campaign. We have a lot of young people, a lot of old people, a lot of people of color.
After the campaign, when your name is no longer associated with those committees [in other cities across the state], do you feel they'll survive?
One of the things that needs to be done in this campaign is to develop a grass-roots movement and develop some kind of statewide apparatus that connects grass-roots organizations all over the state so that we're working more closely together.
Have you campaigned out of Seattle much?
I've been to Bellingham, Tacoma, Olympia and Spokane.... I've always said, from the beginning, that we have people here in our community - the African American working people - that have a lot in common with other working people throughout the state.
We all want the same things. We all want good schools. We want good, paying jobs. We want to be able to raise our families in safe, nice communities. We want to be able to know that when we get old we'll have resources to take care of ourselves, that we'll have a good, decent life.
We want to know that there aren't going to be wars and conflicts that we have to worry about sending our kids off to be killed.
We all want the basic things. It's just a matter of being able to talk to people and helping people understand that we're a fear-based society and a fear-based culture.
We have to learn to put our fears aside because that's what perpetuates a lot of the divide between people: being afraid that somebody is going to take their job or somebody is going to mess their community up or some evil entity is going to bring disorder on our city and our country.
Our media plays on fear, and all through our history fear has been used to keep people divided, to keep people of color separated from other people. It's just a matter of breaking those barriers down because we're all part of the human race.
How is your fund-raising going?
It's a grass-roots fund-raising effort, but it's going good. We could use more money. If we had more money we would be able to get our message out even broader. We don't have that, but we're doing extremely well with what we have, and we're doing very well with raising money when we need it.
What is your most effective tool when faced with lack of funds?
One of the tools that we use for really reaching out to the people is the house party and promoting the concept of people hosting a party. They invite their friends and relatives and neighbors and invite me over and have a meeting and an opportunity to talk with people face-to-face. Toward the end, we do a fund-raising pitch and ask for contributions.
You recently stated that a win for [Republican candidate] Mike McGavick would not make you unhappy. Would you expand on that statement?
I think that, because we only have a two-party system, a lot of politicians take their constituents for granted. One of my primary reasons for running is to put that in peoples' minds that we must have a multiparty system.
Most of the modern, industrialized countries in the world - most of the countries in the world, period - have a multi-party system. They are able to elect different types of candidates, different types of people, so that when the president gets elected he has to build coalitions with a lot of different groups and organizations. This adds more diversity; this brings in new ideas, fresh ideas.
Unfortunately, we don't have this in our country; we don't have any choices. We've got Democrats and Republicans, and for the last 10 years, their ideas have been very similar. As a matter of fact, we've seen the Republican Party move more to the right, and we've seen the Democratic Party move toward that direction as well.
So it's been extremely frustrating for a lot of people that we don't have any choices. That's why a lot of people have not voted. That's why voter turnout is so low because there's nobody to vote for but the same, old people. It's really ridiculous that people become so embedded to the ideologies of their parties, whether they're Democratic or whether they're Republican.
The Republican Party, they have an ideology that's aggressive and in-your-face. The Democratic Party, their difference is, they're not aggressive, but they're still perpetuating the global machine. They do it more quietly, more undercover.
If we are going to save this world, if we are going to save this country, we're going to have to get out of that mentality of being so dedicated to the ideology of these two parties who really resemble a one-party system.
How do you expect people to vote for you and engage in the political system when you have not done the same?
Since that came out, I've been stopped by a lot of people that said, 'You know what? I've never voted either.' Our politicians often resemble cookie cutouts; they're all the same. Why would a person want to vote?
I was in the Black Panther Party for 10 years. I was a revolutionary for 10 years, and because of my political awareness and my political experiences, I understand the political arena.
We need people that really want to do some serious change and bring some vastly different techniques and ideas and concepts into the political arena: people that are not bought by big business but are really dedicated to truly bringing some changes and services to the community.
Unfortunately, those types of people are not able to get elected to cities like Seattle because they don't have the exposure and they don't have the money and they don't have the backing. [They're] going to affect big business. It's going to affect money.
How do you feel your Black Panther Party history has affected your image with voters across the state?
I was a little worried about my Black Panther past, particularly with people outside of this city. I think that it actually has been more of a positive than a negative.
The Black Panther Party has been responsible for the development and implementation of a lot of very important social programs that are still around today. People see this, and they understand it. Being involved in this campaign has really given me an opportunity to talk about that.
What do you feel are the most important issues facing Washington residents?
Universal health care is something I would push to come to fruition because the average American doesn't have health care.
Our slogan is "Out of wars, into our communities" - ending our addictions to war and bringing those resources into our communities so that we can rebuild our communities and rebuild our schools.
I would fight to end the war on drugs because it has cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and it has imprisoned a lot of people who their only crime was being addicted to drugs.
I would fight to end the Patriot Act, to end NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
We're a warring society. We're a warring culture. Every time we want to do something about a problem in our society, we have to say it's a war: war on drugs, war on terror, war on poverty, war on this, war on that. Why does it have to be a war? Why can't we just look at it in terms of a problem we have to solve?
Do you feel comfortable with what you're doing now?
I do. I feel comfortable, but it's a lot of work. I have my nonprofit that I still have to work on and keep going."
For more information about Aaron Dixon's campaign, go on-line to www.dixon4senate.com.
Erik Hansen may be reached via e-mail at mptimes@nwlink.com.
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